About Me

Known principally for his weekly political columns and his commentaries on radio and television, Chris Trotter has spent most of his adult life either engaging in or writing about politics. He was the founding editor of The New Zealand Political Review (1992-2005) and in 2007 authored No Left Turn, a political history of New Zealand. Living in Auckland with his wife and daughter, Chris describes himself as an “Old New Zealander” – i.e. someone who remembers what the country was like before Rogernomics. He has created this blog as an archive for his published work and an outlet for his more elegiac musings. It takes its name from Bowalley Road, which runs past the North Otago farm where he spent the first nine years of his life. Enjoy.

Bowalley Road Rules

The blogosphere tends to be a very noisy, and all-too-often a very abusive, place. I intend Bowalley Road to be a much quieter, and certainly a more respectful, place.So, if you wish your comments to survive the moderation process, you will have to follow the Bowalley Road Rules.These are based on two very simple principles:Courtesy and Respect.Comments which are defamatory, vituperative, snide or hurtful will be removed, and the commentators responsible permanently banned.Anonymous comments will not be published. Real names are preferred. If this is not possible, however, commentators are asked to use a consistent pseudonym.Comments which are thoughtful, witty, creative and stimulating will be most welcome, becoming a permanent part of the Bowalley Road discourse.However, I do add this warning. If the blog seems in danger of being over-run by the usual far-Right suspects, I reserve the right to simply disable the Comments function, and will keep it that way until the perpetrators find somewhere more appropriate to vent their collective spleen.

Followers

Friday, 22 October 2010

A Public Appeal to "Public Address"

Official Warning: This celebrated adaptation of a NZ Department of Health warning sticker against "Industrial Disease" was distributed by the Waterside Workers Union and their allies during the 1951 Waterfront Dispute.

7 comments:

Tiger Mountain
said...

The last several weeks PA has become a virtual bulletin board for producers to publicly berate actors and unions. What a rabble of an industry, more disunity being displayed between the various trades, crafts and regions than I recall ever seeing in a New Zealand industrial dispute. The faux patriotism around the Hobbit production is ridiculous, Warners films will never in any real sense be ‘our’ films. It is a captialist enterprise.

Please someone somewhere start a facebook site or a petition! SAVE NEW ZEALAND'S SOUL! No matter how one feels about the handling of this affair we cannot let it disintegrate into this business management debacle! We are a country! Our laws and labour relations have been hard fought for for good reason. What price our Soul. LynW

Only one thing matters now, namely how to work out a reasonable deal to keep the filming in NZ and end the ongoing destructive chit chat about the Hobbit fiasco. Should Warners end up taking the production off shore there will be massive negative impacts on our local film industry and on the Wellington community in particular. See: http://tvnz.co.nz/entertainment-news/john-barnett-hobbit-s-fate-5-07-video-3855322

The action by equity ammounts to moral trason...they have imperialed the livelyhoods of thyousands and of NZ in general.The lies and arrogance of Kelly,Malcom et el is staggering.Dropping the boycott bomb on day one BEFORE requesting a meeting with Jackson,who had no authority to negotiate with them anyway ,was in the realms of lunacy.

REAL workers have everyright to feel agrived at these scum and to let them know how things really are...